Ascendance of a Bookworm (LN) - Volume 5.4 - Chapter 12

Clarissa’s Invasion

“Eheheheh. Everything’s perfect,” I said.

It was the day of our meeting with the lower city’s merchants, so I’d gathered together the many charms I’d made—including some spares—and prepared a list of topics to be discussed. Also with me were some recipes; the Othmar Company had suggested an exchange of recipes between Leise and Hugo. Leise’s were going to make up this summer’s menu for the Italian restaurant, so I was going to use this opportunity to judge them as an investor.

New recipes! Yippee!

Come third bell, I would be going to the meeting with Roderick, Philine, Melchior, his retainers, Brunhilde, and a combination of young scholars, as well as adult scholars from Groschel. The merchants were due to come before us, so as not to keep any of us nobles waiting. Zahm would announce their arrival and guide us to the meeting room when the time came.

“Lady Rozemyne,” Fran said, “the High Priest is requesting permission to enter.”

I granted it, then he opened the door. Hartmut entered at once, his usual self-assured smile replaced with a rarely seen look of concern.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“My intention was to wait until after your meeting to report this, as I understand its importance to you, but I cannot shake the feeling that things are even worse than I thought. I am afraid that... Clarissa has left Dunkelfelger.”

“Excuse me?”

Clarissa had chosen Hartmut as her fiancé so that she could become my retainer, only for him to enter the temple and take over from Ferdinand as the High Priest. Priests and shrine maidens were forbidden from getting married, meaning Hartmut would need to wait until I came of age and we both left the temple.

Upon hearing all this, Clarissa had become furious. “I don’t mind postponing our wedding, but you must allow me to move to Ehrenfest as your bride-to-be. I won’t let you delay my becoming Lady Rozemyne’s retainer.”

As with all women, Clarissa would be expected to resign from her workplace to have and raise a child at some point after her marriage. If she could get into Ehrenfest using her position as Hartmut’s fiancée, however, then she would be able to serve me nonstop for as long as their wedding was delayed. She had been quite forceful about how she wanted to move here as soon as possible.

Under normal circumstances, their engagement would have been canceled in a heartbeat—but these were no normal circumstances. Aub Dunkelfelger had agreed with Clarissa’s bizarre claims that she had “won the engagement through battle, as is tradition,” and that only she could cancel it as a result.

Only in Dunkelfelger, folks...

Hartmut had told me that, after discussing things with her family and Aub Dunkelfelger at the Interduchy Tournament, they had come to an agreement that Clarissa could move to Ehrenfest during the Archduke Conference—with Sylvester’s permission, of course.

“And did he give his permission?” I asked.

“He did. Aub Ehrenfest seems to have said that he would welcome Clarissa with open arms, since you are in dire straits without Lord Ferdinand, and a retainer from a top-ranking duchy would be an enormous boon.”

There was nothing strange about that—it was true that I was struggling without Ferdinand and that the assistance of a top-ranking scholar like Clarissa would benefit me greatly.

“But why did she leave now?” I asked. “The Archduke Conference hasn’t happened yet, has it? Is she coming through the Royal Academy?”

Knights would take turns guarding the teleportation circles while the Royal Academy was out, but they were generally sealed off. To get Clarissa here, we would need to open the sealed doors and arrange for all of the relevant people to be in position—a significant change of plans.

“We didn’t receive any notice from Dunkelfelger, did we?” I asked.

“The aub and I only found out last night. It would seem that Aub Dunkelfelger deeply, deeply regrets his duchy’s involvement in what has happened to Lord Ferdinand. He muttered that if Clarissa’s early arrival would assist Ehrenfest in any capacity, that would be good too.”

Aub Dunkelfelger! Come onnn!

Clarissa’s trained ears had not missed this idle remark, and she had gleefully departed her home duchy with only a single female guard knight in tow for protection. Not wanting to trouble Ehrenfest any further, she had elected to take a land route rather than go through the Royal Academy. On top of everything else, she had left bright and early the day after the feast celebrating spring.

Clarissa’s parents had awoken one sleepy morning, expecting a comfortable day now that the coming-of-age celebrations and winter socializing were over, only to discover that their daughter had departed. They had immediately rushed to the aub to inform him. The archducal couple had paled upon hearing the news, thinking that Dunkelfelger would once again be troubling Ehrenfest, then contacted Sylvester using an archduke-exclusive line of communication to inform him of the situation and apologize.

“A very apologetic Aub Dunkelfelger asked Aub Ehrenfest to fetch Clarissa from Frenbeltag’s border gate,” Hartmut continued. “Clarissa’s parents are chasing after her as fast as they can, while Mother hurried home last night to prepare a room and everything else needed to welcome her.”

On the one hand, Clarissa’s abrupt change of plans was troublesome indeed, but on the other, we really were lacking manpower. There was no point weighing up the pros and cons, though; she and her parents had already departed, so there was no helping it now. Plus, it was the duty of a bride or groom to welcome their partner at the border gate.

Clarissa was going on a rampage, but she was at least being considerate. She had chosen not to use our border gate with Ahrensbach, which was closest to her, and was instead going to meet us at the one nearest to the city of Ehrenfest—our border gate with Frenbeltag. It would take her several days to travel through Old Werkestock and Frenbeltag to arrive there, which meant we had time to prepare.

“Hartmut, when will you be leaving and returning?” I asked. “I expect our plans for Spring Prayer will need to be adjusted.” The fact that the bridal brigade had left now meant that they would arrive at Frenbeltag’s border gate around the time we were going to leave for Spring Prayer.

“I will need to discuss matters with my parents before I can say anything for sure,” Hartmut answered.

“I wonder if there’s a law in Dunkelfelger requiring all acts of kindness to be equally bothersome...” I mused aloud. “We will need to give Clarissa a sharp word or two about checking others’ plans before acting.”

Having to change plans was always a pain in the neck, and that only became more true the more people were involved. For something like Spring Prayer, which required a tremendous amount of manpower, any change to our schedule was a nightmare.

I sighed just as Zahm entered the room. The merchants had arrived.

“Clarissa won’t be arriving immediately,” Hartmut said. “I will send word once we have more detailed plans; for now, let us go to the meeting room. It would be best to distribute the commoner charms before the scholars arrive.”

I nodded, then went to the meeting room with Cornelius and Monika, the latter of whom was carrying the box of charms. Everyone from Zahm’s report had arrived: the guildmaster, Freida, and Cosimo from the Othmar Company; Otto, Tuuli, and Theo from the Gilberta Company; and Benno, Lutz, and Mark from the Plantin Company.

Seeing so many familiar faces in one place really does ease my heart.

The last time we had met like this was when we had revealed that Ferdinand would be moving to Ahrensbach. Tuuli and the others standing at the back looked so much more like adults than before—which made sense, given that their coming-of-age was just around the corner. I was growing too, but I could only hope they noticed.

“Lady Rozemyne,” the guildmaster said. He brought his right hand, balled into a fist, to his left palm, then introduced himself as the merchants’ representative. I recognized his gesture as the spring greeting for merchants and did the same.

“Blessed be the melting of the snow. May the Goddess of Spring’s boundless magnanimity grace you.”

During this exchange, Fran and Zahm poured tea and brought in sweets. I directed Monika to place the box of charms on the table, then told everyone about Ferdinand’s concerns.

“I expect you all know a lot more about interacting with the visiting merchants than I do, but still—out of concern for the worst-case scenario, I have prepared some protective charms that even commoners can use. It would be my pleasure to gift them to you all. You are the central pillars of our duchy’s merchant community, and I want nothing more than to keep you safe.”

“We will accept them with honor,” Benno replied, carefully mulling over my warning. “It certainly is true that the visiting merchants will be more familiar with Ehrenfest this time around, which will make incidents more likely. We shall hone our senses and exercise the utmost caution during the summer.”

Monika then distributed the charms. Most of the recipients were focused on their gifts, but Tuuli and Lutz alone shot me concerned glances that seemed to say, “Are these going to do anything? Are they safe?” To them, I was the same helpless Myne who couldn’t do anything for herself. It was kind of nostalgic but also a little vexing.

You’re both so mean... I’ve grown too, you know! At least a bit! And I came first-in-class again! Those charms you’re holding? They work perfectly! I made sure they had no problems at all!

I couldn’t actually say any of that, so I merely picked up one of the spare charms and started to explain how they were used. Of course, in the process, I made sure to stress that I’d thought everything through myself—I wasn’t just following some instructions from Ferdinand.

“The charms that I and other members of the archducal family use are sensitive enough to activate from forcefully bumping shoulders with someone,” I said. “I realized that would affect your day-to-day activities, which is why I made sure these would only activate against forces that would otherwise cause great harm.”

Ferdinand would have made the charms to noble standards. I, on the other hand, had properly considered the demands of everyday life in the lower city—something that no other noble would be able to do. Tuuli gave me a bit of an impressed look, so I puffed out my chest.

Impressive, right? Eheheheh.

“We are grateful beyond words for your consideration.”

“I made more for the Gutenbergs,” I said, “and I will distribute those before we leave for Kirnberger. Also, hide them from sight before the other nobles arrive; many will think they are too much for commoners to have.”

The remaining charms were then put away, and I pivoted to a more innocuous topic of conversation.

“At the start of winter, the orphanage welcomed new children who are henceforth going to be visiting the workshop. While they are offering their assistance, would you be able to teach them how to speak with merchants? I want there to be scholars who can properly understand commoners by the time I leave my post as High Bishop.”

“Oh? That sounds like quite an important request,” Benno said, with a look of amusement that seemed to add, “You can count on me.” He doubtless understood that the new children in the orphanage had noble blood and would grow up to be nobles.

“We are going to be joined today by several scholars, whom I also hope to train into my replacements. Their objective is simply to observe the nature of these meetings, so they likely will not speak,” I explained, though I made sure to specify that Brunhilde and her scholars would chime in when the topic of Groschel came up. “Furthermore, I plan to spend the bulk of my time until next winter in the temple and would like the Gilberta Company to visit me. I will need outfits and hair ornaments.”

“Understood,” Otto said. “It makes sense that you will need new outfits, Lady Rozemyne; it is apparent that you have grown since we met last season.”

His validation brought a smile to my face. I asked that he visit the temple after the baptism ceremony but before Spring Prayer, and it was then that Zahm entered the room; it seemed the scholars from the castle had arrived.

Benno, Otto, and the guildmaster rose from their seats, then knelt with those who had been standing beside them to welcome the nobles. Once everyone was in position, I stood as well and granted the new nobles permission to enter. They trudged in, with Melchior taking the lead. I didn’t recognize several of the scholars.

“Allow me to begin with introductions,” I said. “This is Melchior, the son of Aub Ehrenfest. He will take my place as High Bishop after I come of age, so we have begun the handover process for both temple work and meetings such as this one.”

“Blessed be the waves of Flutrane the Goddess of Water who guided us toward this serendipitous meeting,” the merchants said collectively.

This was likely the first time Melchior had ever needed to give a blessing after being greeted by commoners; he looked slightly tense as he produced a green light from his ring.

I continued, “This is Brunhilde, daughter of Giebe Groschel. She is currently my retainer but will not remain in my service for long—she was recently engaged to the aub as his second wife.”

“I will be working with some of you for Groschel’s renovation and look forward to your cooperation,” Brunhilde said.

After that, I offered everyone seats. On the nobles’ side, only Brunhilde, Melchior, and I sat down; everyone else stood behind us as retainers and scholars. The merchants returned to their feet, then returned to their original positions: Benno, Otto, and the guildmaster were sitting while Tuuli and the others stood.

“First,” I said, “let us begin with the topic most important to you all: renovating Groschel.” I explained our plan to recreate the province in a cleaner image, as we had done with the lower city to welcome new merchants, then listed the suggestions I had given Sylvester. “We plan to finish the work by next year and maintain our current business partners until then.”

“That is very welcome news,” the guildmaster said, looking a bit relieved. “The city is already filled to the brim.”

“Indeed. That is why I must ask you to recruit merchants for branch stores, while the Othmar Company establishes a second Italian restaurant. The first is rather popular with merchants of other duchies, no? We believe that Groschel will need one of its own. Naturally, I intend to invest as well.”

The guildmaster glanced at Freida. She sought permission to speak, then asked about the plan for training chefs and waiters.

“This won’t be until after Spring Prayer,” I replied, “but we expect more apprentice blue priests and shrine maidens to join the temple. How would you feel about having chefs commute to serve them and gain experience that way? I would appreciate the opportunity to supplement our kitchen staff, and my intention is to leave training them to Hugo.”

Freida cast her eyes down for a moment, no doubt performing a few calculations in her head. “There are more and more apprentice chefs among the Eatery Guild who wish to work at the Italian restaurant, owing to its popularity among those from other duchies,” she said. “Many would be willing to commute to the temple if doing so meant being taught by Hugo himself. I will seek them out.”

I was then asked a plethora of questions: how many chefs would be trained at once, what their wages and work hours would be, what their work environment was going to be like, and so on. I answered them one by one, recalling Hugo and Ella’s accommodations from when I was an apprentice blue shrine maiden.

“A branch store is a very appealing idea,” Benno remarked, “but it may be difficult to have it up and running by next summer. If the Groschel renovation is to be done in autumn, then the orders for new furnishings will not be ready in time.” He was speaking from his own painful experiences setting up a high-class eatery and the monastery.

Brunhilde took this opportunity to describe the furniture we had confiscated: “There are some furnishings and cooking implements we can move from noble estates, under the aub’s authority. Using those would resolve the furniture problem, would it not?”

“We plan to build new inns in Groschel and use the same approach to furnish them,” I said. “We are also in the process of recruiting individuals to work in these inns and train new servers. Is that not right, Brunhilde?”

She nodded. “Lady Rozemyne came up with the idea herself. We will bring individuals recruited from around Groschel to Ehrenfest via carriages, which the giebe will arrange for. We hope for these recruits to have their new duties ingrained into them this spring and to be taught what to expect during the busy summer.”

“I cannot imagine this being an easy feat to accomplish, but in addition to training staff to work in everyone’s second stores, it will give us more personnel to staff the inns this year. An excellent idea, is it not?”

“There can be no doubting that it came from you, Lady Rozemyne,” Benno replied, his lips curving into a smirk. “I am in favor.”

As we cackled together, Brunhilde carefully interjected to address the merchants. “Attention, everyone. A moment of your time. I participated in a discussion with the aub, wherein we concluded that it would be best for you to design the schematics for the branch stores yourselves, before the end of summer. That will make ordering the furnishings much easier.”

At once, the guildmaster leaned forward. “Will that not inspire others to establish secondary stores of their own?”

Rarely were entwickelns used to remake an entire city. Merchants often had no choice but to make do with and sometimes modify buildings made long ago, but this opportunity to come up with their own designs would save them immense amounts of money on internal renovations.

On cue, one of the scholars standing behind Brunhilde produced a piece of paper. It was a list of stores they wanted to expand into Groschel.

“We would appreciate having the Merchant’s Guild assist us in motivating these businesses to set up new stores in Groschel,” Brunhilde said. “Without these popular establishments that our visitors from other duchies have come to expect, Groschel will be a merchant city in name alone, with nothing but inns to garner interest. That will do nothing to reduce the burden on Ehrenfest’s lower city.”

She sure is working super hard on this, considering that she’s a rich archnoble girl who had never been to the lower city before.

I was moved to see Brunhilde speaking directly to commoner merchants instead of communicating through her scholars. She had changed a shocking amount in just two years.

Brunhilde had spoken to Giebe Groschel and Sylvester in private, so most of her plans for Groschel were news to me as well. I decided to let her take the lead and instead used the opportunity to look over the meeting room. The scholars listening from behind her were making various expressions: one was observing the exchange in wide-eyed surprise, another was watching intently in an attempt to learn what he would be expected to do himself moving forward, and another was grimacing ever so slightly.

It came as a relief to see that Melchior looked genuinely interested.

After the discussion about Groschel settled down, I turned to Lutz. “Now, the matter of the printing industry. Lutz of the Plantin Company—is everything ready for the Kirnberger trip, as it was last year?”

“There are several points we would seek permission to change,” Lutz replied, then took out his diptych. “The leave and return dates can remain as they are. However, Heidi from the ink workshop cannot accompany us. Because she is pregnant, she has asked to send her disciple instead.”

Come again?! Heidi’s pregnant?!

Josef would be staying behind as well to stop her from going crazy. Heidi was apparently bemoaning the poor timing of it all; she wanted to join the others so that she could witness the new resources and research, but sending her on a long-distance trip while she was pregnant was out of the question. She would end up giving birth in Kirnberger.

“Heidi has my leave to remain behind,” I said. “I will consult Giebe Kirnberger and ask that materials be sent back with you as a gift.”

“Your consideration is much appreciated,” Lutz replied with a half-smile. He must have envisioned Heidi quite literally jumping for joy. “Zack the smith also asked to send a disciple in his place; he is to be married during this year’s Star Festival.”

Aah, right. He’s around that age now.

Women of the lower city often got married before they turned twenty—much like women in noble society. Commoner men, on the other hand, tended not to get married until their early twenties. This was a bit later than their noble counterparts but only because it generally took them longer to earn enough to support a family. Johann and Zack had been on the verge of becoming adults when I first met them, so it made sense that they were now reaching the prime age for getting married.

“How fares Johann?” I asked. His personality had made it hard enough for him to secure a patron; I couldn’t help but worry that his neuroticism would affect his love life too.

Lutz gave a brisk nod. “His Star Festival will be two years from now at the earliest. I’m told he will be marrying the foreman’s granddaughter once she comes of age.”

Oh, so he does have a partner. I guess that makes sense, considering his amazing talents. I understand the foreman not wanting to let him go.

“Johann has requested to bring his disciple Danilo this year,” Lutz continued. “He wishes to secure time to train him for a handover, as he knows from experience the hardships of dealing with other workshops.”

“Zack and Johann both have my leave,” I said. “Please ask Ingo to bring a disciple as well. I intend to order from him furnishings for Groschel’s inn and bookshelves for my library.”

Because the aub was leading this reconstruction, as his adopted daughter, I needed to have my personnel take part as well.

“I will be leaving for Kirnberger after the Central District’s Spring Prayer is complete,” I announced, “so tell everyone to have their disciples ready for their first long-distance trip. I should note that we will once again be using this opportunity to exchange personnel with Hasse’s orphanage, so please arrange for the usual carriages and guards to be hired.”

“Understood,” Lutz said with a nod, writing everything down.

Melchior gave us a curious look. “There’s another orphanage?”

“Indeed,” I replied. “There is an orphanage in Hasse, a neighboring city. It works closely with the citizens there, so its culture varies somewhat from our own. We exchange five or so gray priests each year, and their influence remains positive for us both.”

Children could receive a much better education at the Ehrenfest orphanage; books were always close at hand, and plenty of the gray priests and shrine maidens there had once served as attendants. Hasse’s orphanage had its own benefits as well, though; it offered an environment rarely visited by nobles, which meant they could socialize with commoners, keep farms, and so on.

“I want to visit this second orphanage at least once,” Melchior said.

“If you can get our father’s permission, then I will take you there during Spring Prayer.”

“Really? I can go?”

“I am sure he would grant you permission to observe Hasse’s Spring Prayer, tour the monastery’s orphanage, and then return with one of your retainers on their highbeast. Nothing bad could come from learning more about Spring Prayer and how rituals are performed.” I turned to Lutz and Tuuli. “Merchants and craftspeople use family connections to see how trades are done ahead of time, do they not?”

They nodded.

“Seeing the work being done with your own eyes is more inspiring and provides a great chance to familiarize oneself with the job,” Tuuli said, smiling. “It really is important.”

Lutz quickly took out a board, as if realizing that this was a perfect opportunity. “We hope to have children interested in becoming apprentices at the Plantin Company tour the workshop. Might we receive your permission?”

“There is technically a rule that forbids pre-baptism children from entering the temple...” I answered—but then I saw a familiar name among the list of apprentice hopefuls.

BWUH?! “Kamil”?! Am I seeing things? I’m not! Is it really him?! Is it just someone else with the same name?!

I stared at Lutz, doing all that I could to prevent the emotions flooding through me from showing on my face. The hint of pride in his jade-green eyes made it clear to me: this was my Kamil.

Wooow! He’s already old enough to start looking for apprentice jobs! I knew that, but, at the same time... Wow! This really is a surprise!

In my head, I still saw Kamil as a toddler, always stumbling around in his lumpy diaper. I hadn’t even known that he was hoping to join the Plantin Company as an apprentice.

I want to permit this. So, so, so bad. I want to do it right now.

However, this wasn’t a decision to be made lightly. Kamil wasn’t the only name on the list; I needed to make sure we would be able to host any other applicants as well.

“I shall look into this,” I replied.

“We are grateful.”

Assuming that Kamil does become a Plantin Company apprentice, that would give me a good excuse to meet with him, right?! WOO-HOO! Praise be to the gods!

An ordonnanz flew into the room just as a storm of blessings whirled inside my heart. The merchants not used to these white birds recoiled a little, while we nobles extended our arms and waited to see on whom it would land.

Hartmut was the intended recipient.

“This is Clarissa,” the ordonnanz said.

But how?!

Ordonnanzes couldn’t cross duchy borders, which could only mean one thing: Clarissa was in Ehrenfest at this very moment. How, though, when we had only been told about her departure this morning?

“I just arrived at Ehrenfest’s west gate,” the bird continued, “but the guards aren’t letting me through. Nobles from other duchies require a permit from the aub, apparently. What should I do?”

THE WEST GATE?! She’s not just in Ehrenfest—she’s right on our doorstep! Holy crap, this is scary!

Hartmut and I exchanged looks. We were all surprised, merchants and scholars alike. My excitement over possibly meeting with Kamil had been blown away in an instant, replaced only with shock, fear, and confusion.

Geez! Now I know why Ferdinand and the others always ended up with headaches during my rampages. I need to take Clarissa by the reins and get her back under control.

It was clear to me now: I needed to be like Ferdinand! I shot my head up, and Hartmut swiftly presented me with the ordonnanz’s feystone. A quick tap of my schtappe turned it back into a bird.

“This is Rozemyne,” I said. “Clarissa, obey the soldiers and stay where you are. If you defy them, I will have you sent straight back to Dunkelfelger.”

I swung my schtappe and sent the ordonnanz flying off. Then I turned to Cornelius, who was standing behind me, and got him to summon Damuel and Angelica. They came briskly into the room.

“Clarissa is too much for the soldiers to handle on their own for much longer,” I told them. “Hurry to the gate and take control of the situation, then have Clarissa wait for my arrival. I will leave as soon as this meeting is over.”

“Understood!”